Warlocks and Demons
by Ho-Ho-Noa
Summary: Sanji was a warlock and Zoro was his demon. But Mihawk had left a mark on him and now Zoro was left a soft target to enemies who had been looking for him for a long time. Would Sanji manage to keep him safe without his magic? AU, SanxZo, MixZo
1. Chapter 1

Hello readers! Yes I know, this is another fic I ended up writing when I supposed to focus on my assignments or my other fics... I really need to write it down coz it kept bugging my unorganized mind. I stole the idea of warlock and demon from Bartimaeus trilogy muhahaha!! I loved the trilogy a lot so I decided to make a warlock-demon fic with One Piece characters in it. However, It's not a crossover I merely borrowed the idea of warlock and demon and their bond from the novel. It's purely One Piece fanfic!

Enjoy!

Title: **Warlocks and Demons**

Pairing: **SanjixZoro**, hints of **NamixLuffy**, maybe **MihawkxZoro**

Rating: **T**

Disclaimer: **Don't own One Piece or Bartimaeus Trilogy**. I'm just borrowing the magnificent characters and ideas from them for the sake of fun!

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**Chapter 1**

"Who dare disturb my slumber?!" A low trembling voice growled from the cloud of eerie smoke emerging above a recently hand-drawn pentacle.

"Cut it out will you? It's sucks." A young warlock yawned from where he stood a few feet away.

"What now?!" The mysteriously horrible voice suddenly slipped to an angry snarl from a terribly annoyed young man, who stepped out from the cloud of said smoke without any trail of grace or dignity. His appearance was just like an ordinary young man with poor sense of fashion, unless he had a pair of horns coming out from his weird green hair and a pair of dark green dragon-like wings sprang out from his back.

"Go and check whether my Nami-swan is safe or not and then put a bundle of her favorite orange roses in her room with my message in it." The blonde warlock started, ignoring his demon's glare.

The demon opened his mouth to throw a protest but being cut off by his master.

"Note it: Dearest Nami-swan, I sent one of my servants to check on you and left this beautiful roses to compliment your equally radiant beauty. I can't wait to meet you tomorrow in the class. Love, Sanji." The young demon growled at the mention of him being the servant and resisted the urge to instantly pounce at his annoying skinny master who was only being protected by a pentacle drawn around his equally skinny long feet. The demon kinda got used to it now and had started to learn to get his revenge through insults. Insults that hopefully will distract the young man enough to burst out and accidentally step out of his little pentacle for a split second and then he can have his sweet revenge.

"Geez, not only that you're a pervert, you're an idiot too." The demon started.

"What was that?!" The young warlock barked.

"Goblin isn't counted as a warlock's minion, I thought you already learned that at school. You only have me to order around and for you being able to summon me alone is beyond me." The demon continued. It was true. He was one of the strongest and most dangerous entity existed and every warlock wouldn't even dare consider to summon him unless they're sure they could control him. Yet there he was, suddenly being pulled out to the human plane a few months ago by some idiot-looking amateur and proclaimed that he was his new master. The warlock was the youngest and the least experienced warlock ever to call upon such a powerful being such as him. It made him reconsider the title he once had. Maybe he's not as strong as he used to be? The master's ridiculous daily orders weren't helping his confidence either, not that he liked being ordered around by some skinny teenager who happened to know some spells. He stared at the warlock, watching his every move and waited for the young man to take his bait. He could clearly see the man's face grew hot by his taunting and he narrowed his eyes murderously at his demon but no words coming out from his mouth. He took several deep breaths as if to cool down his temper and his face constantly turned back to its normal shade.

"Shut your fucking demon mouth and finish the job before I loose my mood and give you the punishment spell." He snarled between gritted teeth.

_Shit, he was pretty good at this! _The demon thought dejectedly.

The last two words were indeed powerful as the demon almost visibly squinted at the mention of it and dashed to his next destination in a blink of an eye. The punishment spell was the last thing he wanted right now.

"Damn warlocks and their spells." He grumbled under his breath, flew his way towards the direction of girls' dormitory. The cold night wind made him shivered a bit, but the thought of playing the part as a messenger of teenage crush sent greater shiver down his spine so he sped up, wanted to get rid of the job for the night.

"Hi Zoro, another roses for Nami?" A slightly younger demon took form of a skinny boy wearing red vest, shorts, and straw hat greeted him. He was perching on the windowsill, the red-brown fur on his large monkey ears, hands, feet, and long monkey tail ruffled and his face looked tired.

"Hi Luffy. Yeah you know him, he's been trying to woo your witch this past few months. Only succeeded in repelling her if you ask me." Zoro retorted lazily. He secretly felt jealous for the bond Luffy and his master shared. His master must be valued him more than just an ordinary servant; she even let him called her by only her name. He, on the other hand, must address his master with his title 'Master' before his name. What an annoying prick. But polite and manner were never existed in Zoro's vocabulary, no matter what his master had expected him to be.

"Hmm," The boy looked at the other, uninterested.

"Rough day huh? What did she drag you into this time?"

"Another stealing mission from the marketplace downtown. They put eleven goblins to guard the old clay pot Nami asked me to steal."

"Damn," Zoro muttered showing his sympathy to his friend, knowing how hard it would to get an old fragile pot from those crazy little creatures without breaking something.

"Who's that, Luffy?" A girl's voice called out from the bathroom door on the right side of the bedroom. The demon boy quickly straightened his back and jumped in the room in agile movements.

"It's Zoro, he has something for you." He reported.

Zoro quickly put the roses along with the note on the nearest table and flew back out of the window while saying hasty goodbye to Luffy. He knew better than to stay any longer or the wicked girl would take advantage on him. She once told him she would tell Sanji that his demon had peeked on her in the bathroom while in truth Zoro only saw Nami in her bathrobe on another visiting duty Sanji put him into. She blackmailed him to do numerous stealing crimes for her in payment of his 'perverted debt'-that's the term she used. He didn't want to look even if he knew she would appear in front of him completely naked, but of course his idiot master wouldn't listen. Oh, how he hated humans.

"Zoro, you must come back quickly, master needs you!" A familiar voice without physical presence suddenly called. It's the goblin his master had used as his lesser minion. Demons could communicate with their masters or with each other from any distance and time. Call it convenience, but there's nothing pleasant about it if it's for one man's self-interests. The goblin's squeaky voice sounded shakier than usual.

"What is it, Usopp?"

"Master tried to summon an afrit but his power wasn't strong enough. The afrit has been devouring his life energy, hurry!!"

A strange wave of unpleasant feeling welled within his stomach. His master's strength must be waning fast he didn't have the energy to call Zoro himself when he mostly needed it and sent Usopp instead. And because it's not a direct order from the master to him, no spell binding him to answer it. This was his first real chance to break free but why did he fly back like someone had burned his tail? He blamed his sense of pity for humans, but something in his head said that wasn't the only cause.

Upon arriving to the warlock's room, he saw a horrible creature Usopp had mention before. He must be the afrit his master had tried to summon. He had massive hawk wings and huge claws instead of feet but he had a man's face and body. Zoro caught a glimpse of the blonde warlock laying limp on the floor and he felt the presence of the goblin hiding somewhere near, unable to flee without his master's order. The afrit's sharp hawk eyes shifted at the presence of another demon, made Zoro froze at the massive aura he emitted. This afrit was way too strong for him to defeat and he knew the other demon knew that. Realizing the afrit partly ignored him and continued on sucking his master's life energy, Zoro took the opportunity to attack first. He drew his three swords and strike in a deadly speed only to be easily dodged by his opponent. Suddenly his body had already being jerked backwards by impressive force which also knocked all of his three swords, making him crashed painfully against the wall and before he even fell, and a merciless hand gripped his neck, pinning him to the wall.

"Did you think you stand a chance against me little demon? I am way above your level to challenge." The afrit growled from an inconvenient distant. Their noses were almost rubbing to each other.

"Or maybe you're no longer willing to live. I'll gladly help you end your miserable life quickly if only you asked nicely."

"Go-to-HELL!!!" Zoro managed to say between strangled coughs.

"I'm feeling generous, so I will grant you the honor to be my first prey today. Your pathetic master can wait a little longer." The afrit practically purred into the young demon's ear.

_Oh shit!!_

Zoro tried to loosened the other's grip, using both his hands and his feet kicking wildly in vain. He was overpowered and there's nothing he could do to save himself. What was he thinking trying to attack this demon when he could just run away from the scene? No, he shouldn't even come back here in the first place. No one had the power to save him now. He watched in horror as he saw fade green glow of his life energy began to emerge from his chest and drawn towards the afrit, then he gradually started to feel numb and dizzy. He was almost lost his consciousness when he felt his body crashed the hard floor and it was quickly followed by nothingness.

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* **Afrit** is a demon entity which belongs to a higher class than those of Genies. (Zoro and Luffy are of **Genie** class, which was commonly summoned by young warlocks) There are variant types of ability and strength within a class but they're still can be considered equal.

* In this fic, demons dwell different plane from humans and it's **not hell**. Demons which I referred to are not the same with those who liked seducing and deceiving humans into committing sins, they're beings different from humankind with various appearances, abilities, motives, and characters.

more of One Piece characters will appear as the story goes on and I guess more pairings too...

Care to leave a review? Reviews always make writers happy! ^^


	2. Chapter 2

Hi again readers!Here's chapter 2! Thanks a lot for reading and reviewing, you're all amazing! Hope this update is quite enjoyable for you. Happy reading!**  


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**Chapter 2**

A jolt of stinging pain brought Zoro back to consciousness. He wasn't sure it was pain in the first seconds but his body jolted violently and then the pain gradually appeared. He could hear someone mumbled something in the background but he couldn't care less for he was too busy panting and squirming in agony at the moment. The amount of terrible pain increased in a matter of seconds before it receded and gone completely just as suddenly as it came. His vision was blurry and his body shook harshly as the aftermath. The same person was mumbling curses to no one in particular. He heard rough shuffles of fabric and paper nearby and he knew that someone was standing close by. Slowly, his vision came back to focus and soon he noticed that he was in his master's room because he recognized the familiar ceiling pattern. So he was still alive after all, but how?

"It worked!" The same voice said excitedly. It was his master's voice. He turned his head slightly towards the source of sound and his eyes confirmed that it was his master with a large old book lying on top of a wooden pedestal table in front of him. His eyes studied his demon intently as if he was watching a lab rat he had been experimenting with and watched hopefully for any expected reaction. It looked like the young warlock had managed to save him from his death. Zoro attempted a scowl but his facial muscles refused to cooperate so his face was looked more like winching. He tried to rise from his lying position but then realized that he didn't have enough strength to do so. In fact, he didn't have any strength left to even lift his head. He was confused, angry and also a bit scared. But just a tiny bit because fear was really not in Roronoa Zoro's vocabulary. He wasn't sure how to react and the room was filled with long tense silence until his stunned master broke it.

"It's about time to wake up."

"Shut it, human." He said, or at least that's what he wanted to say despite the fact that he sounded more like growling incoherent words.

"You've lost large amount of life energy. You will need a couple of days to recover." The warlock continued.

"Tell me something I don't know. How come we all still alive anyway? Where's _your_ afrit?" Zoro asked sarcastically.

"I've got enough time to chant the banish spell when he was devouring you. Listen, I really don't know why you did it but-uh…thanks." The warlock mumbled in awkward hesitation, the last word was barely above a whisper but loud enough for Zoro to hear it.

"You give yourself too much credit. I didn't do it because of you." He retorted, and then quickly regretted his lie because there was obviously no other reason for it.

"I-uh, I wan't thinking earlier. You're just lucky." He added hastily.

The blonde didn't reply, instead he moved closer and kneeled before the demon to scoop him with his arms.

"Wh-what do you think you're _doing_? Don't _touch_ me!" Zoro protested. He felt very weird and uncomfortable because he never been this close to a human or been physically touched by them before.

"Shut up. I'm trying to help!" The blonde said in annoyance, he tightened his grips on the squirming body to make it stop before they both lost balance.

The demon complied for he didn't think any resistance would help much. Sanji carried him to his bed on one corner of the room and laid him there gently. A mental image of them as a newly wed appeared in Zoro's head, making him blush furiously.

"There. You'll be safe as long as you're here." The blonde said, his eyes glanced to the floor beside the bed frame. Zoro followed his gaze and saw a newly drawn large complicated pentacle on the floor surrounding the bed. It was a spell for heavy protection against any magic.

"This is ridiculous. What's this for?" He demanded, although he already knew what it was for. His master had gone too far now. He's not that helpless, was he?

"He had marked you, the afrit."

Zoro hissed at the sudden burning pain that on his chest and when he lowered his gaze he could see a glowing red mark with strange shape on the center of his chest that wasn't there before. The shape looked like an ancient rune he had never seen in decades. He shivered. It's a rare thing for a demon to mark another demon, unless they want something particularly important from the other. When a demon marked other demon that could only mean one thing: he wanted to make sure they would be easy to find in case they're missing or running away. The mark left an invisible thin line of arcane magic that forever linked a demon to their captor and made them easier to relocate. The afrit wanted something from him and it's obviously not something pleasant. He tried to remember what had happened but all he could recall was that the afrit said he's going to devour his life energy and that was it. Although he noticed there's something eerily different with the way the afrit talked to him. He shifted his gaze back to his master, waiting for him to talk. A little part of him was hoping the teen would have good news to tell but the way he looked at him told the demon it was the other way around.

"What?" Zoro glared impatiently at the blonde teen who was still staring at his new scar.

"Zoro I'm so sorry," The young started.

"What?"

"…There are rumors about evil warlocks who collect particular kind of demons to open the gate to hell."

"Don't be silly, the rumors have been around since your great granma was born and nobody has ever heard of such thing as hell's gate being opened by a bunch of loons. Besides, what does this have something to do with the rumor?" The demon pointed at his new scar. "It was _your_ afrit who did this."

"The afrit, Mihawk, had a master who was a warlock many years ago before he was banished from the city. He was so powerful and arrogant; one day he tried to open the hell's gate to show everyone he could defeat the hell's creatures alone but he was stopped and made to pay his crime. What worries me is somehow Mihawk still bound to his master's last command and is still trying to do the job for him. Shit, it's entirely my fault."

"You damn right, blondie. Why did you try to summon him? It's better not because of our conversation about you having only one servant." Zoro gritted his teeth.

"Shut up! It's not that. A jerk challenged me. He envy my talent and try to anger me by saying I wouldn't have any guts to summon an afrit. Then he challenged me to summon Mihawk."

"And you failed."

"I know, I should've known. I was stupid." Sanji mumbled.

"You're stupid and had completely lost your mind." The green haired demon added.

"Oi!"

"You almost killed us both."

"I _know_! I said I'm sorry, okay?"

The demon sighed. He was angry at his idiot master but he felt angrier at himself for what he brought himself into. Why did he do it? Nearly killed himself to save a human's life, an insolent human who enslaved him and asked him stupid things to do. What made him ignored his logic and acted based on his impulse in the last seconds? He sorted through his list of thought and feelings he had for his young master and tried to inspect it thoroughly. Hate, absolutely; Loathing, no doubt; Anger? For sure; Distaste, yes; Pity? …hardly; Sympathy? …almost not; Fondness? ……what? of course _not_!

What the Hell??! Even his mind was playing a trick on him now. Mihawk must have sucked his life energy a lot more that he had thought and had damaged his brain cells. He really needed a lot of rest now and stop thinking anything. The young demon curled into a ball and closed his eyes and soon he drifted into deep slumber. A pair of skinny hands pulled up the pale blue blanket on the corner of the bed and use it to cover the sleeping form of the shivering demon.

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to be continued...

critics? comments? suggestions? I would love to hear your thought so please review. ^_^


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Sanji walked around in small circle encircling a wooden chair where he piled old books and scrolls he borrowed from the school library. It was a habit he developed since he entered the warlocks' college and it usually helped him calmed his nerves and sometimes even helped solving a problem. But no matter how much he tried to convince himself that everything would turn alright and all were just coincidences, he couldn't stop worrying that his theory might be true. Zoro could be right, that it had nothing to do with the rumor, but why did the afrit do what he did then? What could be the other logical explanation for this?

The young warlock glanced towards the sleeping form on his bed. The demon had his back on him and had pulled up the blanket to almost covering his entire head leaving only a patch of moss green hair. What would a demon want from another so badly and had to make sure they would be easy to find? Sanji wasn't very familiar with this kind of case, he knew he was young and still had to learn a lot, but he never heard a demon would chose marking other demon instead of devouring them right then and there. Alright, maybe he wasn't the best student who had never missed a class or constantly paid full attention to what the teachers said, but it was not his fault if he had already known more than half of the teachings almost the entire time and it wasn't his fault if some of the lectures envied him because of his talent! Speaking of someone who envied him…The blonde's eyes narrowed in hatred remembering the bastard and the conversation a few days ago that had started it all.

~~~~~_Flashback_~~~~~

"Well well I see you're skipping another class again, Mr. Blackleg. Not a smart move from a self proclaimed talented student." Klahadore's low cunning voice made Sanji's head whipped toward the source of voice that interrupted him from his current concentration on an old page of scroll he was reading. "I imagine what the professors would say if they know you were digging through restricted library area when you should have sat quietly in your class room, like any other good student." The tall skinny man continued.

"Say what you like, Klahadore. But I'll be careful if I were you. You don't want me to tell Professor Clover that his replacement lecturer is lurking way outside the classroom when he should have filled his class don't you?" The blonde sneered in the same poisonous tone and made the man's eyes slit slightly behind his round glasses. The young blonde didn't know what the man's problem was, but this cunning man seemed to dedicate himself to pick on him all the chance he had. Both men glared at each other for a moment, each tried to evaluate what move the other was going to take. Then suddenly the man chuckled slightly with mocking expression on the corner of his lips, leaning his shoulder to the dark wooden book shelf on his left as if he just saw Sanji did something really stupid in front of him.

"What are you laughing at?!" the blonde snarled.

"You think you're too good for Professor Blarney's class don't you? I can't really blame you honestly, that boring old man's lectures are not so challenging for young adventurous mind." Klahadore started. The blonde just snorted at the man's word that he was being honest. Every smart man would know that Klahadore and the word honest were just not going together. The man was extremely cunning and full of tricks and tactics in every action or word he was saying for his own advantages. He could never be trusted. The young warlock shifted his eyes back to the paper in his hands, attempted to continue reading through the half end part of the paper. Usually he would throw a smart comment at everything the cunning man would throw at him but now he was a bit busy so he tried to ignore him hoping the other man would just leave but unfortunately the man felt a bit chatty today.

"What is junior year student like you learn in his class these days? To make a goblin slave do juggling?" He asked mockingly. "What a shame. In my time junior students already started to learn how to master a real demon slave."

"What's your point Klahadore?" Sanji rolled his eyes, starting to lose patient.

"Nothing." He shrugged, a fake careless expression on his face.

"You're not the only one who can summon higher entity in your junior year, Klahadore." Sanji taunted.

"Don't be too proud of yourself Blackleg. I know you already figured how to call a genie and so is the rest of one quarter of your peers. I'm talking about afrit." The man quirked a thin satisfied smirk when the last word seemed to affect the young blonde's expression.

"There's no way you could control an afrit back then!" Sanji said skeptically.

"As a matter of fact, I did summon one successfully with the help of a friend. The afrit name was Mihawk. Unfortunately we made a small mistake in the process and it would've killed us both if I hadn't prepare a banish pentagram before."

"Why are you telling me this?" Sanji asked suspiciously but he kept his facial features calm and uncaring.

"Because I bet you wouldn't be able or even dare to do it. No matter how high some old senile professors speak of you, you are just another weak orphan brat this school funded to make good impression to the public."

"Apparently someone's feeling insecure over his own unsuccessful life." Sanji smirked smugly.

"I knew it. I shouldn't challenge a coward like you Blackleg." Klahadore snorted, disgust was thick in his voice.

"Nobody calls me a coward, bastard. Your big mouth would learn how to shut up once I show you I can summon this damn afrit _and_ control him!"

~~~~~_End of flashback_~~~~~

The young warlock sighed at his stupidity. Clearly he had fallen into Klahadore's trap once he accepted his challenge that day but it's useless to dwell on it further when everything had been said and done. Finally he decided it was best to first found out more information about this Mihawk and he knew just the right person who could help him with his investigation but for now he had a class to attend to, a class which he swore would never skipped since his lovely Nami-swan and Vivi-chan were also taking it. He quickly stripped off his usual pants and shirt, put on his school uniform and grabbed his brown leather messenger bag then draped the long dark blue robe around his shoulders before he rushed out of the room. The class would start in fifteen minutes and he didn't want the ladies to see him late.

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The green haired demon was woken by a soft thud on his right. Annoyed, he tried to ignore it, thinking that it was only the wind blowing something unimportant on the corner of the room. He quickly drifted back to sleep when peaceful silence took place once again throughout the entire room. The only constant sound was coming from the half opened window on one side of the room as warm afternoon breeze blew in the window and made the curtain flapped slightly. A soft snore escaped his mouth as his consciousness dove deeper into the ocean of dream. He was surrounded by blends of bright pleasant colors of warm yellow, light green, and pink that seemed to flow around and occasionally swirled and twisted into abstract shapes. Demons didn't dream of solid shapes that resembled things from their memories or imaginations like humans did. When they sleep, all they could see was just blends of abstract shapes and colors of their world. Warm feelings of magic engulfed their body and renewed their tired soul as it connected with their own realm where the demon's power and energy were coming from. Suddenly his consciousness was being dragged back into human's world, forcing him to stir and slowly opened his tired eyes to stare back at a pair of curious dark eyes staring intently from his side.

"How come you get to sleep in the middle of the day?" The intruder blurted out, his voice somewhat accusing.

"What do you want, Ace?" Zoro grumbled in annoyance. He had to put extra strength while lifting his hand to rub sleep from his eyes since his arms felt as heavy as lead but his voice was not as hoarse as before.

"You aware you're sleeping in the middle of a protection pentagram? What's up with you?" The other demon continued. He leaned in slightly to inspect the hand drawn pentacle closer while his fiery red monkey tail moved slightly from side to side. A gesture he always showed when he was thinking or when he was plain curious. The green head just glared at the uninvited occupant, for the first time felt glad finding himself inside a warlock's pentacle so the other demon couldn't pounce or straddle him like he usually had when he greeted him.

"You can just leave whatever note your master have for the pansy blonde somewhere noticeable. He's going out." The green head said, ignoring Ace's questions. He didn't need to check the room to know his master was out since the blonde always created noises around him.

"Smokey instructed to deliver the message directly. This one is quite important." Ace leaned in a bit and low his voice into a whisper at the end of his sentence. Zoro had known Ace and his brother, Luffy, long before they accidentally met again a few months ago since Sanji started helping some minor cases in the local police department. Ace, Luffy, and Zoro used to work together as a team several centuries ago when a group of old warlocks ordered them to build a massive bridge between two islands with several other genies. The name Ace chose to call his master made the green head quirked a grin as an image of the detective's face grew red in anger appeared in his mind. Just like his little brother, Ace's careless and childish character had the ability to annoy and entertain others at the same time. Although Zoro didn't really show it, he generally enjoyed having the other's company.

"So… how do you like your new master? I heard he's quite popular." The monkey demon grinned and his brows lifted teasingly.

"He's a complete bastard. I don't know how the idiot found out about my name. It's been a while since my last call to the earth. I was beginning to be optimistic that somehow they had lost it and stopped bothering me."

"Cheer up at least you won't get bored now. Human's world is too much fun!"

"Oh yeah you're right, unless you missed the fact that we are actually here to be their _slaves_!" The green head said calmly but hatred was thick in his deep voice.

The dark haired demon stopped hesitantly seeing the other demon's burst of anger, unsure of what to say. Zoro was right, they were basically slaves for their masters and had to do what they wished of them but things had changed and the relationship between warlocks and demons were greatly improving since the Great War ended many centuries ago. True, humans treated demons worse than animals before the war broke and it lasted for decades for none willing to surrender until a new enemy emerged. Fiery beasts of hell stroke terror into the heart of men and demons, forcing them to make peace to fight the hell's creatures. Both sides signed a treaty that created laws to maintain the mutual balance between men and demons and ended the dark age of slavery among the demons. Over centuries, memories of the tension and hatred between both sides were gradually faded among humans, but demons which lived much longer than their human counterparts did not forget easily. Many demons still hold silent resentment towards humans as terror and pain their kind suffered centuries ago was still fresh in their memories and Zoro was no exception. The laws wasn't good enough for them and some considered it as the continuation of the age of slavery which couldn't exactly be blamed since basically the warlocks would still summon them to do whatever they wanted as long as the demon was bound to a master since warlocks were useless without their demons. Warlocks could call upon any demons as long as the knowledge of a demon's real name were theirs and they could master the demon with their mental strength, demons on the other hand, didn't have the power to chose or deny their masters once bound. The things the demon kind benefited from the treaty were a warlock couldn't force his demon to sacrifice his life or gave a servant a task that would certainly end the servant's life and most importantly, a warlock was required to pay the summoned demon slave with something equally precious, if not more, for the work they had done for the master in the end of servitude, and it was life energies of a living being. Some warlocks used animal sacrifices and some dark sect of warlocks sacrificed other human souls, but most warlocks paid their servants with some years of their own life-span, the length depended on the amount of magic one asked from his demon to perform in his command.

"I better leave and come back later. Smokey's probably wondering why I haven't came back by now. Catch you later, buddy." Ace told the green head and made his leave, his body quickly turned into a floating flame before it completely disappeared into thin air.

The room was silent once more but the young demon found it a bit difficult falling back to sleep again. He tossed and turned several times to get comfortable in the small bed but finally gave up. He turned to face the ceiling and glared at it menacingly as if it was the cause of his problem. He despised humans and yet there he was lying useless on his back because he tried to save the brat's ass from another demon. He sighed deeply in frustration, if there's someone he needed to put the blame on, it was himself. His hand lifted to his chest and touched the spot where he got the new scar from the afrit. The burning pain hadn't completely gone and he hissed softly when his fingers accidentally brushed the area with unintended pressure while his mind played back the scene when Mihawk almost killed him that day and tried to connect it with the scar he left on his chest.

to be continued...

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Another pairing appeared! It's just too tempting to make Ace Smoker's naughty demon! They are just so hilarious as a pairing.

Thanks for reading and triple thanks for leaving a review! :)


	4. Chapter 4

Hi again folks! Sorry for the long wait but I've been having problem with continuing the plot. Finally it came out with this one so I decided to give it a go.

Thanks for reviewing or adding this one to alert/fav list. You guys are awesome and I couldn't ask for better readers. Thanks for your support and incredible patient!

Please enjoy.

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**Chapter 4**

Today's Herbalogy class talked about magical mandrake root which shape looked like a strange human baby with wrinkles all over its light-brown skin and had to be fed with a mixture of milk and blood regularly by its owner. Sanji didn't really pay attention to what the teacher was saying after she explained how to feed them properly as his mind wandered to more important things such as how beautiful Nami-san looked when she pulled her lovely orange hair to the back, or how Vivi-chan's new hair band complimented perfectly her soft light blue hair. Then his thought strayed back briefly to his room and to a certain green haired demon who was likely still sound asleep while the blonde had to sit and listen to the boring lectures in the class.

_Damn demon, why did he have to be so reckless and tried to fight the afrit? _Thought the blonde.

But then again, he just had been saved by the demon out of free will, which was unheard of. Just what's up with this demon? Sanji knew the green demon held grudge towards warlocks like most of his kind. No, it was probably more than just grudge. Even though the demon was good at concealing his emotions and his past, unlike most demons (especially some very chatty demons he knew from his acquaintances), the blonde could tell from the way the dark green eyes looked back at him one time when he unintentionally mentioned a name. How wave after wave of unknown emotions appeared on his facial features before quickly being replaced by pure hatred. The blonde warlock was quite surprised that the name held such great impact on the stoic demon. What kind of relationship did the demon had with this person that it was able to cause such a great effect?

_Kuina_. A young girl who lived many centuries ago, in a kingdom called Calderan. She was the youngest of the emperor's great healer shamans. She was once Zoro's summoner. That was all Sanji knew about the girl, he didn't pay much attention when Nico Robin, a history scholar, mentioned it to him. Now knowing that this young shaman may had an important key to Zoro's past, the young warlock couldn't help but grow interest of her and mentally added a note to ask Robin more about the girl once he got the chance. But for now he needed to focus on more dire situation. Mihawk. He needed to gather as much information as he could about the afrit to get a better idea of what kind of danger he or his demon might be facing. It's not that he worried about the damn demon or anything, even though he might sounded a bit protective of him, it's just that he didn't want to disappoint such a lovely lady like Robin. She didn't tell him the real reason behind her action but he wasn't stupid. He knew she had a reason of her own when she told him she could help him get a change to learn summoning a genie, but he had a feeling that she gave him Zoro's real name for certain reasons that he probably shouldn't ignore. She's trying to prevent Zoro being summoned by someone so she told Sanji first. Not that he didn't trust her nor did he questioning her decisions (for Sanji could never do that to a honourable and graceful lady!). He was more than flattered she had chosen him to give such an important information. It's just uncommon for someone to pass a demon's name to other people that didn't have any strong bonds with them such as family ties or master-apprentice ties. He and Robin were merely acquaintances. Detective Smoker was the one that introduced her to him so she could help him with some cases they were investigating since the dark haired woman seemed to have access to any restricted files of the city's archives.

Maybe he should tell her about what just happened instead of just asking her about Mihawk, she might be willing to give him some more important information he might need.

The noises of students packing up and flowing out of the classroom reminded Sanji that the class had just finished. "Next week have your paper ready, students." Said the professor, Kokoro. She was a short, round and strong old lady with a loud voice. "We're going to discuss what you learned from your little experiments." She continued.

_Oh crap. This is why my grades dropped lately. Gotta stop this habit or I'll lose my scholarship._

_I'm sure my wonderful Nami-swan or Vivi-chwan could help me. Ah marvelous, another excuse to spend time with the ladies!_Sanji thought happily with heart shaped eyes and flared nostrils, both hands clasped together on one side of his weird-looking face.

"Mr. Blackleg, how many times do I have to tell you that facial expression of yours would only scare away young girls?" Professor Kokoro said from her spot beside the door. "Now, shoo. My other class will start shortly."

"Oh. S-sorry ma'am." His face instantly turned a bit red upon hearing the old woman's voice and he quickly walked out of the room.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

The city's library was a massive building stood on a vast lawn of a hill at the border of the city. It was built using dark brown mountain rocks and its architecture reminded Sanji of a huge tree since the higher half of it spread outward to four directions like tree branches while the lower half had round exterior that looked like a tree trunk. The building had four entrances from four directions.

Sanji climbed the green hill slowly to safe energy. He was tired since so many things had happened to him since yesterday. He was almost killed last night, then he spent almost the rest of the night trying to revive Zoro from coma. The last view hours he had before the morning class started was spent by thinking about the whole ordeal and the cause of it. In short, he didn't have any sleep and now he felt like shit. He had walked through the large lawn of the library so many times before and he always enjoyed every step he took as he got closer to the building, happy that he was going to see the beautiful and intelligent lady inside, but now it felt like he was undergoing a series of torture. The temperature had risen sharply and the dark clouds spread across the sky, concealing the sun. A few streak of lightning appeared on the dark sky, quickly followed by the sound of thunders. It was going to be raining very soon and if he didn't want to be caught in the rain, he better hurry up. With a tired groan, the blonde increased his pace and arrived at the entrance in time before the rain got harder. He shook his dark blue coat slightly to dry it a little bit before he pushed the thick wooden door open.

Sanji made his way through the shining wooden floorboards, passing numerous high bookshelves that were arranged in circular formation, towards the circular stairs in the middle of the library. Robin could usually be found at the highest level where most of the city's restricted records were kept.

"Mr. Blackleg, nice to see again." The raven haired woman lifted her head from a pile of old parchments spread on the table in front of her when she heard rushing footsteps approaching.

"Miss Robin, it is my pleasure to be able to see you today." Sanji sang. "You look exceptionally graceful today." the blonde's eyes turned into heart shapes seeing her in a simple dark purple dress and a beige camisole that wrapped her slim frame perfectly. She only giggled softly at his antics.

"How can I help you today, Mr. Blackleg?"

"I need an information concerning an afrit, and please, call me Sanji."

"An afrit? Are you helping a new case from detective Smoker?"

"Um, not exactly. It's just someone mentioned an afrit to me."

"Mr. Sanji, you know I couldn't help you with any information if it's not for the police cases."

"Yes, I know. It's just... I really need to know more about this afrit. Someone might be in danger."

"Are you saying this particular afrit tried to kill someone you know?"

"Yes, sort of."

"For what reason?"

"That's what I'm trying to find out."

"Did the person tried to summon the afrit?"

"Um, no. Someone else tried to summon him. But then the one I am talking about came to stop the afrit from killing the summoner and almost died in the process."

"And I suppose they told you what almost happened to them?"

"Mr. Sanji, I would have thought you were smart enough to know your limit. I'm really surprise you're still alive know."

"Uh.... well I-"

"Is it your friend?"

"Huh?"

"The one who had saved you."

"Uhm, no he isn't... he's my demon, Zoro."

"......I'm really disappointed, Mr. Sanji."

"R-Robin? I-I'm sorry, I didn't-"

"You said he isn't dead? How come?"

".... I chanted a banishing spell."

"You're not telling me something, Mr. Sanji. An afrit could kill a genie faster than a warlock could perform any spell."

"Well, uhm, I don't think he wanted to kill him instantly. He left a mark on him."

".......What?"

"That was my first reaction as well."

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

The heavy rain had subsided into a light drizzle as the young warlock rushed though the cobbled pavement towards the male student dorm which was located on the east side of the main campus, separated by a huge yard where several trees and bushes trimmed into geometrical shapes were grown. He was just entered the main corridor of the building when Ace suddenly appeared, perching on one of the window sill that some one forgot to close right on the blonde's left.

"Yo, Sanji." He greeted.

"Goddamnit, Ace!!" The warlock snapped at his grinning face. He almost got a heart attack since it was so sudden and he was running close to the windows.

"I startled you huh? Sorry bout that." Came the sheepish apology.

"Just don't ever do that again." The blonde waved his hand dismissively after he calmed down a bit and continued, "A new case from Smoker?"

The demon glanced around the long corridor to make sure that they were alone then after making sure no humans or demons nearby, he nodded "He needs you to help with missing person case. He suspected an insider is involved within the university." Ace paused for a while then opened his mouth to continue but closed it again and tilted his head slightly to the side as if trying to listen to something.

"What?" Asked the blonde. He looked around their surrounding and slightly mimicking the demon's gesture but heard nothing.

"Someone's in pain." The monkey demon said. The blonde just stared cautiously at the demon's bright red eyes, waiting him to continue. It must have been another demon since only demons could feel all sort of energy around them and feel its fluctuation. In short, demons could feel if there's another demon gained strength or dying within certain distances that was still within their mental awareness.

".......Zoro?!" The young warlock eyes widened questioningly as realisation dawned on him. The raven haired demon nodded briefly and they both raced towards Sanji's room at the third floor of the dorm. The blonde skipped two or three stair cases at once while making his way through the third floor with Ace hot on his tail. He barged in the room to find the demon in question already sprawled on the floor next to the bed, writhing and groaning in a way that could only be described as agony.

"Zoro! You alright?" Ace rushed to the green haired demon's side and turned the unconscious body around to face the ceiling. His body was drenched with cold sweat and his breaths hitched from the pain. "Holy shit! What's that?!!" Ace's eyes widened upon seeing a weird scar burning bright red on the other demon's chest. Just by looking at it he could tell how much pain the other was experiencing. The warlock could only stare in shock from his spot at the doorway, his brain couldn't seem to respond appropriately. He didn't expect the green head's condition to be this serious. He just looked tired when the blonde left him this morning.

"His power is draining fast. We need some help!" Yelled the raven haired demon, dragging the stunned Sanji back to reality.

"Do you know someone that could help him?" The demon pressed on.

"I-I could only think of one person. Miss Nico Robin! Could you get her here? I'll see what I can do while waiting." Said the blonde, finally getting over his shock. He slammed the door behind him and rushed to dig on some piles of thick books and scrolls on one corner of the room once Ace took his leave.

"Protection spells.... Protection.... Protect..... Shit!... Protect.... Protect..... No!..... Protection..... Goddammit!..... where the hell did I put-_YES_!!" Once he found a book with dark green cover and engraved gold words saying 'Arfoleus' spells of protection', the blonde quickly took a position on the demon's side while scanning through the index pages.

"Hold on, Zoro. Just hold on." He told the weak demon even though he knew he couldn't hear it. He stopped at a page within the book that showed an long enchantment guide to perform a spell to block other spells from working. The warlock stopped briefly to gather his concentration and mental energy. These two steps were crucial when performing a difficult spell such as this one. He breathed in and out slowly and his mind started to focus. But no matter how good he was at concentrating, his hands still couldn't totally stopped from shaking slightly from anger and worry. Feelings that he wouldn't ever think he could feel about a demon before.

to be continued...

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Don't hesitate to leave a review and let me know what u think.

Thanks for reading!


	5. Chapter 5

Hi all! At last an update from me!

So sorry it took long, I was having a huge writer's block with this one for some time.

Just want to thank all of you who read, reviewed (kudos for the reviewers), subscribed to alert or favourite this fic.

This chappie is dedicated to all of you! Thanks for all the support!

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**Chapter 5**

Robin's sudden entrance startled Sanji whose mind completely absorbed on the limp form of his demon lying on the cramped bed.

"M-Miss Robin!"

The dark haired woman dropped her bag on the doorway and rushed her way to the side of the bed, next to where Sanji was. Ace made his presence a few seconds after Robin, appearing as a floating flame which instantly morphed into his human shape. He was perching on the foot end of the bed frame with hands gripping the metal frame tightly and leaned rather dangerously towards the other demon. Robin put her palm on the green haired demon's forehead and turned to the lanky teen who was rather taken aback by the way she handled the demon. "What is his situation?" She urged.

"His energy drain stopped after I conjured Arfoleus' impedium incantation and so did the pain." The blonde told her. "He's asleep now." She seemed to relax a bit upon seeing the steady rise and fall of the demon's chest.

She shed the blanket covering the green head downwards to check the mark on Zoro's chest. Ace must have told her what he saw on their way to Sanji's place. It wasn't glowing bright red like before, but the dark colour of the burned skin was still in contrast against the golden tan skin. Her beautifully manicured brows formed a slight frown as she studied the scar for a while while the tip of her fingers touched the non-burned area ever so slightly. Sanji had never seen her so serious, but then again, he hadn't had a change to see her long enough at work before.

"Is that a demon's rune symbol?" The blonde asked nervously.

"I don't know. I've never seen anything like this before." Robin said truthfully. She pulled the blanket over the green head's chest again after she observed it long enough then turned her attention to Sanji.

"If you want my help, I would need you to tell me exactly what had happened, Mr. Sanji." Her deep blue eyes shot him a hard glare that almost made the blonde visibly squinted. She's quite scary when she did that with her eyes.

The blonde sighed heavily after he finished telling the raven haired archaeologist everything, except his 'little' talk with Klahadore that literally had been the reason he had take the bait in the first place. He just couldn't let his wonderful Miss Robin knew the real reason behind his impulsive foolish act so he 'altered' certain parts just a little bit. Most of the details were true though, so it's not like he was completely lying to her.

"Is he gonna be okay?" Ace broke the temporary silence hanging on the room with his quiet voice. The deeply concerned tone in it somehow bothered the blonde and made him wondered why. He supposed it should be normal for Ace to worry about the green head, Sanji knew they had known each other long time ago, so why would he had sudden feel of this.... this... uneasiness.

_It's jealousy._

A faint voice inside his head corrected but the idea felt so odd and disturbing that he chose to pretend he didn't hear anything. What would he felt jealous?

Robin's face softened towards the sad demon and she smiled kindly at him.

"I think he'll be okay, Ace-san, at least for now." then she turned to the young warlock again and stood up to pick up her bag and got ready to make her leave. "Make sure he gets a lot of rest, I'll try to gather any information I could find."

"W-what if the attack comes again?" Sanji enquired anxiously, almost afraid if Robin walked out the door Zoro might have another attack again. He knew he was being paranoid, but couldn't stop himself from asking.

"The incantation seem to work just fine, at least until I could find what really caused it. I won't be long, hopefully." With that, Robin stepped out and shut the door behind her.

"Uh, I gotta go. Smoker needs me." The fire demon said after some time. "He asked you to go visit him tomorrow afternoon at 5." Seeing that Sanji's eyes still on the bed, he neared the blonde and put his hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry, he's strong." Ace told the warlock. He paused for a moment and kept his hand on the other's shoulder, as if wanting to say more but then decided to leave the room quietly.

Again, Sanji felt that uneasy feeling inside his gut but he knew Ace was just trying to comfort him.

_This is all my fault. _

_My stupid fault. _

The blonde mentally winced remembering the accusing look in Robin's eyes when she first entered the room. He thought he probably deserved that although it's kinda harsh coming from someone as kind and composed as her. She trusted him and he disappointed her. No wonder she's angry. Sanji should have known the afrit was no match to a genie, he shouldn't have tried calling for the green head that night. But he was desperate and couldn't think clearly when he was being 'eaten' halfway by a demon and it's not like Zoro was forced to do it. He came by his own free will fully knowing the consequences.

_He came because he wanted to safe me._

The thought made his stomach wrenched and knotted painfully. It should have been him who were lying on the bed, writhing in agony or laid still; dead.

_Why?_

He shouldn't do that. He was a demon and demons didn't do that for their summoners unless ordered. And even so, the new law enabled them to be released from their master's bound once their life was dangerously threatened. Once their masters died, they'd be free from earthly bound. So why would they want to save them?

Why would he?The blonde couldn't help felt like a worthless piece of shit. He clenched the pale blanket instead of the green head's shirt. He was so frustrated he wanted to shake the demon roughly and screamed the words into his ears if only it could undo everything.

_Why, bastard? It's not like I need you to safe me!_

But that would be a lie. Sanji didn't want to die just yet, not when he was so young and hadn't had the chance to fulfil his dream. But at the moment he wished he hadn't been given the green haired demon's name at all.

_~flashback~_

Sanji finished his classes for the day and was rushing to the city's library, eager to meet Robin there. She had promised him the day before that she would help him learned to summon a genie. She also told him she would provide him a real genie's true name! He really couldn't wait to have his own genie! He felt sorry that he had to lie to Nami and Vivi about where he was heading but the raven haired scholar had specifically asked him to not tell anyone of their supposed meeting.

"Miss Robin!" He beamed upon seeing her at the top floor of the building. "I can't stop my heart from racing wildly to be having a date with a beautiful lady such as you!"

The older woman smiled politely. "I don't recall calling this a date, Mr. Blackleg." She had gotten used to his quirk with female after being introduced to the flirty blonde by detective Smoker, although he still managed to amused her sometimes.

"Ah, I shall call it our secret rendezvous, then?" He said hopefully but Robin only giggled while raising her delicate hand to cover her mouth.

"Please follow me, Mr. Blackleg." She led him to a dark room at the very back of the floor through several long book shelves that finally ended on an old mahogany door. They hung book shelve on top of said door so that side of the wall was almost entirely covered with old books and the narrow space between the shelves on both sides of the door made it looked like they were in some kind of weird tunnel full of old books and yellowing papers. And it was kinda dark too since the light wasn't switched on, not that Sanji was complaining being led to a rather 'suspicious' room by someone like Robin! If anything, it only thrilled him to quickly find out what the woman had in mind behind that door.

The door swung open with a low creak and Sanji stepped into a dimly lit medium sized room. It was slightly bigger than his room at the dorm but looked much more cramped since Robin had mountains of books and scrolls in it, some were stacked on the floor or on the big desk at the corner; some were left open, and the rest was put on the long book shelves covering almost all sides of the wall. There was a tiny window covered with dark purple curtain between the shelve on one side.

Robin had put different sizes of old rugs with different shades of colours and designs in an attempt to make the room more homey. She also put two comfortable looking armchairs in front of the shelve-free wall where there was a small iron fireplace. It was the only source of light in the room, but enough for them to navigate through the room easily without knocking anything. Robin must have her goblin put a constrain spell on the fire since the room was literally covered with flammable objects.

Sanji noticed that there was a small space cleared of any rugs or books at the centre of the room, showing the library's grey stone floor. This room was probably an unused space and so it was left un -renovated. That would explain why Robin put all that thick rugs on top of it. It must be cold, especially at winter. There, Robin had drawn two neatly hand-drawn pentacles; the smaller pentacle, designed for the warlock, was connected with a line to the slightly bigger one that was meant for the demon. She smiled when he walked closer to inspect it and stood next to him after she grabbed something from her desk.

"I'm assuming you already read enough of a genie summoning procedure through written texts." She began. "And since Detective Smoker speaks so highly of how a fast learner you are, I believe you're ready to go to the next level of learning with more... practical approach."

She offered him a beautifully crafted dark green tube container no longer than 10 centimetres and 4 in diameter. Inside, there was an old narrow parchment roll with staffs the colour of bones and it was bound with a green thread. The object had a strong unearthly magic coming out of it. Sanji could just feel the air fluctuation around it, as if the thing contained a form of life in it.

"Go ahead, he is called Roronoa Zoro in short. He is yours to summon." She assured him and took a few steps backwards to give him more space. She called a word and clicked her fingers, then suddenly a floating ice blue fire appeared above Sanji's head to help him with the reading. The young warlock was slightly disappointed knowing that he lost his change to have a pretty female genie, but then again he wasn't sure he could prevent himself from feeling guilty for all eternity to be the cause of a female's slavery, even if she's not a human. So male demon was definitely a better choice.

Sanji gave her one last badly-hidden nervous glance at her before he unravelled the thread and pull the roll open. List of words were written in delicate letters of Hestaesh, an ancient language aged five centuries older than their common language. It was the mother of all languages and warlocks in training would have been introduced to it in their early age. Although mastering it was a different matter. Despite knowing most of the letters, Sanji would still need Robin's assistance on some. Each words, which was all parts of the demon's real name, were written on different line to make it easier to read and each must be pronounced by the summoner in the exact order. The blonde looked at the end of the roll that was almost touching the floor between his feet. Genies sure had a very long name compared to a goblin, he thought.

"Just remember to focus and proceed correctly." Robin's calming voice told him.

To focus his concentration and mental energy was surprisingly easy. Having the fireplace as the only centre of attention might have a lot to do with it. The opening spells and the pronunciation of the name was going well thanks to Robin's assistance. It was the binding spell at the end that was giving him a bit of trouble, but then he managed to finish the whole procedure correctly after a couple of failed attempts.

He knew he was successful when he saw the letters on the parchment were glowing bright green starting from the first name down to the bottom as soon as he finished with the last spell. The still air around them suddenly moved towards the pentacle, as if sucked by the magical circle where a whirling wind appeared at the centre. It was gradually gaining strength and grew more violent.

"Don't get distracted, Mr. Blackleg! Concentrate only on drawing him onto the circle. He would try to resist." The raven haired warlock raised her voice in order to be heard among the noises.

As if on cue, Sanji immediately felt an invisible force trying to fight his mental energy. He shut his eyes tightly and tried with all his might to will it to succumb. It was like trying to tame a wild animal inside your mind. He tried to encircle the raging force and immobilised it but it wasn't easy at all. The demon was all but strong and agile. Everytime, he managed to dodge and sent powerful blow to knock the warlock down who quickly recovered and struck back. Each side was equally strong and stubborn. As their fight got heated up, the wind around him picked up and grew more intense. Or probably it was just inside his head, he wasn't sure, though he was grateful it provided him complete isolation from what going on outside his mental consciousness. The struggle went on for some times until they were both worn out. The blonde saw an opening right after the demon lunged at him and used it to trap him. He hold the not-as-powerful force down, leaving him defenceless and thus forced him to submit.

The blonde relaxed as he felt the hostile force began to withdraw. It sure took a lot of energy trying to summon this strong headed genie. His body was drenched in cold sweat and he felt quite exhausted but it had been worth it. He exhaled and opened his eyes, realising that the energy that moved the air inside the room had dramatically waned. The whirling wind inside the pentacle stayed, although it obviously lost majority of its strength and size. It was more like a twirling air at the moment.

Sanji could hear the woman behind him let out a pleased chuckle but his eyes was fixed in front of him. With one last twirl, the weak wind turned into a figure of a child. She was around 11 years of age and had a dark blue short hair. She wore a simple knee-length white dress and ancient leather sandals. Hung on her belt, there was a long sword with sparkling white sheath.

The blonde blinked for a couple of moment, trying to observe the small form before him. He knew demons could change shapes and imitate any kind of life forms as they pleased. They liked to 'exaggerate' their appearance, especially at their first meeting with their summoner. It was an ego thing, just to make themselves felt better after being lost to a warlock or perhaps to scare the shit out of some of the lesser summoners for revenge. For whatever motive might be behind it, Sanji had expected something completely different from this rebellious demon. Something more.... rough or intimidating perhaps?

Silence reigned the room as the warlock and the demon held some sort of staring contest, each expecting the other to speak up first. The demon in the little girl form crossed her arms and frowned seeing no reaction came from the young blonde, her lips closed tightly, forming a thin line and making her looked like a stubborn brat who refused to spill out a secret.

"...Aren't you gonna say something?" asked the blonde.

"You're the one dragging me here, idiot. What do you want?" The girl snapped. She scowled deeper but it kinda looked cute on her. If Sanji didn't constantly remind himself that the demon was actually a _he_, he would have answered nicer.

"You bastard, that's no way to address your new master." He snarled. "Cut that out and face me like a man, literally. I don't tolerate paedophile."

"Why should I?" She smirked smugly.

"It seems like you need a reminder who's in charge here. You are inside _my_ pentacle and I can do _anything_ to you, demon."

"What kind of man accused someone else of being coward when he himself hides behind a stupid pentacle?" The demon taunted.

"Why you...! I'll teach you some lesson, brat!" before Sanji could chant a spell, Robin interrupted the two.

"Kuina" Her word gained full attention from the little girl.

"It's Kuina isn't it?" She repeated. Robin's lips curled up seeing the effect her words had on the demon.

"Who are you?" The little girl asked back.

"I'm Nico Robin. Why are you in her form, Roronoa Zoro?" She took a few steps forward and stopped beside Sanji's pentacle.

"None of your damn business, woman!"

"Watch your foul mouth when speaking to her!" Sanji butted in.

"Shut it, weird brow! That's her own damn fault for-_Argh!_" There was a spark of white electricity once Sanji murmured a word causing the demon to instantly bent forward and collapsed to the floor.

The demon muttered a curse and her little body slowly dissolved back into twirling air. Another form appeared instead of her; a bigger, slightly muscular figure of a young man. He propped himself with his arms into a sitting position and slowly got up again. It was evident that the pain from the spell still lingered but he managed to stand still and glared hard at the warlock, refusing to show any weaknesses. He had a pair of horns jutting out from his odd short moss green hair and a pair of dark green wings. On his waist, three swords were hung on his right hip.

Appearance-wise, he was quite attractive with a nice body and all, not that Sanji was checking him out of course- he was just a real man that would admit if another male looked good, but thankfully the green head's fashion sense was low. He appeared to be around Sanji's age and height but held a rather intimidating aura about him. Sanji believed the swords and the dragon-like wings helped adding to the effect.

_So this is his true form._

"Roronoa Zoro, I'm Blackleg Sanji. I'm your new master from now on."

"I am no one's slave, human!"

This was going to be a long conversation. The blonde didn't feel like citing the same spell again, not when he know the demon was just barely recovered from the last one, but he would be forced to use it if the green head kept resisting. Sadly, that was just how things worked between warlocks and demons.

TBC

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Hee, this one is one page longer than the last one. I hope you all enjoyed it! :)

In Bartimaeus Trilogy, the author didn't really explain about how the demon name thing really worked. I just thought that it would make sense if a demon's true name was long and complicated so that not just anyone could summon them once they got the info. I mean, if it's short, anyone could just remember it and easily call them.

This way, I don't have to make up cool demon names for Zoro too! Hahahaha! I'm cheating!

But I made up enough crappy names about spell and language in here anyway.

So... that's it from me now.

See you folks in the future! ;) (hopefully not for long)

Please review and help me improve! :)


	6. Chapter 6

Hiya there! I'm back with a new update!

Can't believe I could finish it this so soon but surprisingly it did finish thanks to all the readers and reviewers! I will tell Zoro to kiss everyone of you who did review last time coz u all really made me happy!

Me: Go, Zoro!

Zoro: Do it yourself, woman!

Me: Whatever. Sanji, why don't you go instead?

Sanji: With pleasure! (jumps and twirls his way towards the door)

Zoro: Where do you think you're going, aho-cook?

Sanji: What the hell's your problem, marimo? Outta my way!

Me: Aw, Zoro's jealous!

Zoro: **Am not!**

Me: Yes, you are. Now shut up and let me-

Zoro: _You_ shut up!

Me: Sanji, would you get our little marimo quiet down for a little bit?

Sanji: Sure!

Me: ...um Sanji, I didn't mean you should do that to get him quiet down... Sanji? ...guys? ...Uh, I'd hate to interrupt them so let's leave 'em alone for now... anyway, please enjoy! :D

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**Chapter 6**

"You called me?" The green haired demon appeared before a little girl with short dark blue hair and she nodded. They were on the edge of a rocky hillside near the palace's temple. Below them laid a vast view of the wavy surface of the dessert. The air was dry and chilling since it was still a few hours before dawn.

"Sit here, Lorh." The girl patted an empty space on a wide rock next to where she sat crossed legged with her sword on her lap.

Zoro raised his brow at the name, but said nothing and only did what was told. She called him by the name when there were only the two of them, he noticed, but he had never really interested to argue or to ask why. The worthless masters before her called him names too, some were obviously insulting and some were not as obvious. He didn't care. The way she spoke it, though, was not like the rest of them.

"In case you're wondering, it means silent wind storm." She turned to smile at him before looking away again, staring at the dark vast desert below. Zoro stayed silent. He didn't know why she bothered giving him another name if its not for an insult. He was no more than a slave to her after all, despite they shared some sort of respect in how they interacted with each other.

Lohr. 'Silent wind storm'... it didn't sound so bad. He wondered briefly whether she just made the name up to describe how she saw him or something like that. Zoro smiled inwardly. It was a rather nice name, actually.

The green head sat still and watched the horizon where the edge of the dark sky and the wide dessert met as he waited silently for her further command. But when no word came out of her still, he turned and raised his brows expectantly at her; showing that he was waiting for her. She seemed to realise it and explained her thought to him. "I just want to show this to you. Look!"

He looked towards the endless dune bellow but there was nothing there beside darkness. He glance at her briefly, wondering what she meant. She only nodded and turned back to the view before them. He obeyed, although started to get rather annoyed since there was nothing interesting at all; they were only staring at the sand in the darkness of the night sky lit only by a pale round moon. He was often confused by the girl sometimes, she was quite... random at times, hard to follow. It's like trying to understand the mind of a child, which she was. She rarely showed this side of her in other people's presence, due to her role as the emperor's healer shaman; she was expected to think and act beyond her age. But when she was only with Zoro, she showed more of her playful, curious tendency. She had only been living in her world for eleven years after all, there were little things that weren't amusing to her.

She turned her head slightly and giggled when she saw the demon's face who was trying so hard to spot something on the empty dessert, his eyes narrowed into slits and his brows almost formed a knot on the forehead in an attempt to find an unusual or suspicious shadow moving along the sand surface that might attract her attention.

"You tricked me!" He growled after realising what had happened and she laughed out loud. The green haired demon tried to look angry (he didn't pout!) but it was hard not to join the happy light laughter of the child. He too laughed in the end.

Their hearty laughter rang loud and clear, breaking the complete stillness of the cold night air around them.

Zoro opened his eyes and breathed in warm air. He looked at the familiar ceiling pattern and immediately remembered where he was.

_Only a dream..._ He sighed. That's right; demons could also dream like humans sometimes, but it was only about their past or a glimpse of their future.

He felt a damp towel on his forehead and removed it. He felt hot and groggy, but felt a bit better than before. Propping his body into a sitting position, he scanned around the empty room. The sun was already high on the sky as it shone through the window. The warlock must have left for school a few hours ago. Wait, something was a little off; he didn't remember Sanji's room was _this_ messy.

"Zoro! You wake up!" A boyish face with a very wide grin suddenly invaded his vision, making him almost fell back to the bed. The boy only grinned wider, if that even possible.

"Luffy, I told you not to do that! Sanji will kill me if he got a pain attack again!" Usopp screeched.

"Relax, Usopp he's okay!" Said the energetic demon happily but that didn't seem to calm the curly haired goblin as he abruptly pulled the other demon away from Zoro.

"Zoro, how are you feeling?" Usopp put back the towel to his forehead and asked nervously.

"I feel better now." He said while shoving away Usopp's hand. "What happened here?" He asked, referring to the whole mess on the floor and table.

"Sanji was worried sick and Nami told Luffy to help me watch over you, but he gave me more chores to do than helping out around here!" Usopp complained.

The green head blinked. The arrogant warlock was _that_ worried? He sure was acting paranoid lately after the incident with the afrit. He did unnecessary things; embarrassing things that didn't need to be done. Zoro tried to chase off the blush that threatened to crept up his cheeks remembering the way the blonde carried him onto the bed. Stupid blonde!

"Hey, that's _not_ true! I tried to help you out, but you won't let me!" Zoro's attention was drawn back at the two demons as he heard Luffy protested.

"That's not helping, Luffy! You knock anything on your way and spill the water you're carrying everywhere!" Said Usopp, his round eyes widened comically and his mouth opened wide in an attempt to look scary in front of the other demon. Zoro was mildly amazed Luffy could still carry on with the argument without being distracted by the funny expression of the goblin.

"No, I didn't!" The monkey demon said stubbornly and pouted.

"Yes, you did! Argh! Look at what you've done!" The skinny goblin pulled his hair frustratedly and pointed at the other's feet.

The monkey demon looked down to see water pooled on the floor from the upside-down water basin Usopp had put next to the bed. No wonder he felt his feet rather wet just now.

"Ops, sorry Usopp, I didn't see it." He apologised sheepishly and sat on the edge of the bed after Usopp ordered him.

"_Stay_ there and don't _wipe_ your feet with the blanket! Here!" The goblin throw him a cloth while cleaning another mess Luffy had created, complaining all the way about having to play mother for two genies and about irresponsible masters.

"It must be boring sleeping all day, even though you like to sleep, Zoro. Let's play something!" Luffy beamed, jumping up and down on his sitting spot next to Zoro's feet.

"Uh, I don't feel like playing right now, Luffy." Zoro said.

"Oh." The younger demon nodded, his wide grin faded a little but grew wide again after a couple of seconds. "I know! We can play something not tiring. How about... eh what was the awesome game you told me, Usopp?"

"Oh? You mean The Very Tough Usopp's 'truth or dare'?" Usopp looked up from a few parchments he was trying to dry near the window.

"Yup! That's the one!" Cheered Luffy, hitting his fist to his palm.

"Er... I'll pass." Zoro was not into any kind of games requiring the player to tell secrets.

"Aw, you're no fun!"

"Oh no no no my friend, you cannot turned down the offer. That's the very basic rule of my awesome game!" Usopp interjected.

"_What?_ What kind of stupid rule is that?" Zoro grumbled.

"Of course, the game was not meant for the faint hearted as it was ingeniously designed by-" Usopp said but stopped abruptly at the green head's warning growl.

"Who're you calling faint hearted, long nose?"

"Ah, _n-no one_!" He said quickly and looked down, pretending to seriously read one of the parchments he was fanning, although it's clear the paper was blank.

"I know you're not scared, Zoro. That's why I'm asking you to play!" Luffy always had a way of getting anyone to play with him and Zoro was usually his soft target. The green head sighed and rubbed his temple.

"_Fine_, but I'll only play one round. Just get on with the rules." He said and shifted to get a more comfortable sitting position, ignoring the boy's whine all the while.

"Usopp, you're playing too!" Luffy told the long nosed goblin after he was tired whining and decided one round for Zoro was good enough.

"I-I'm fine." Usopp said.

"You would break the _very_ basic rule." Zoro pointed out, using the goblin's words against himself.

"My can't-come-and-play-games-near-the grumpy demon is acting up again." He retorted.

"Come on, Usopp! Zoro won't do anything to you, right Zoro?" The monkey demon turned to the green head.

"Right" He grinned evilly towards the goblin, making poor Usopp gulped nervously.

Usopp finally came and they all sat on the floor near the bed. They started right away after Usopp finished explaining all the basic rule, which turned out to be just the same like the 'truth or dare' game except for the silly name. Luffy somehow managed to convince Usopp to use one of Sanji's precious wine bottle collection to be used in the game.

Zoro had been lucky for the first few rounds but he wasn't so happy since he had to get a turn once in order to be able to walk out of the stupid game. Just after Luffy answered that his own boogie was the grossest thing he had eaten in his entire life for Usopp's question, the tip of the dark bottle that he swung rotated for a couple of times until it stopped directly at Zoro.

"_Hee hee hee_. Zoro, truth or dare?" Luffy asked enthusiastically. The super wide grin on his was rather unnerving.

"Dare" He ignored it and answered almost immediately. He had never had trouble with dare before, it's usually easier than truth. He was not much of a talker anyway.

"Okay. I dare you to strip." Luffy said innocently without putting much thoughts to it, which made Zoro thought he was hearing things. This kind of topic was just not like something Luffy would ask or even thought of.

"Excuse me?"

"I said; strip." The boy repeated himself. Zoro could only blinked in surprise, wondering why Luffy hadn't asked him to do something more interesting but then he shrugged and stood up soon after to oblige the boy. He took off his shirt and his pants without further protest. He didn't wear his normal haramaki with his swords attached to it; Sanji had took them away before. At least he could walk out of the game after this. He stood up for a while, half expecting one of them would comment on the newly burned mark on his upper chest. Instead of that, Luffy and Usopp just stared at him expectantly, as if waiting for him to do something.

"_What?_" The green head asked, annoyed.

"What about your underwear?" Luffy asked innocently.

"What about it? You didn't mention anything about being naked!"

"But that's what strip means, right?"

The green haired demon let his jaw dropped open at what he was hearing. He meant strip like taking off the _whole_ thing?

"Oh, and you have to dance after that." Luffy added thoughtfully.

"_What the hell? _I'm_ not _doing_ that!_" Zoro's face grew red in anger.

"I'm not changing my mind." The rubber demon told him sternly, unaffected by the other's outburst. "Take it or change to truth."

Zoro would be absolutely confident that the word was alien to the innocent demon up until a minute before. Did he even realise what he just asked was really perverted and gay? There's no way it came from the kid himself and Zoro bet certain orange haired witch had a lot to do with tainting the boy's pure mind. The thought of Luffy reading scary girl's magazine with naked men doing things in it from under Nami's bed made him shuddered. And don't even try to ask where he had learned about something so perverted and sinful like that from a girl's room. Girls weren't as innocent as they seemed, that Zoro had learned for sure.

"Zoroooo, s-t-r-i-p _now_!" The boy's hands pounded on the floor impatiently when Zoro still didn't do anything. His facial expression was similar to when he was asking for food. This made a vein popped on the green haired demon's forehead. It's not that he was shy to reveal himself or anything, he just didn't feel like showing to the whole world what he got down there. He wasn't a fucking exhibitionist and besides, judging from the way Usopp looked back and forth between the other two with big shocked eyes, it seemed like he's going to get a panic attack anytime soon. That damned monkey kid was clearly oblivious to the consequences of his request.

"_Shut up!_ I'm switching to truth!" He finally hissed, thankful that switching challenge was allowed in their stupid game. He swore he saw a glint on Luffy's eyes once he said it.

"Right!" Luffy chirped and sat up straighter. That big disturbing grin was back on his face. Zoro narrowed his eyes at the younger demon. It was almost as if he had planned this from the beginning.

His eyes turned serious instantly. "Zoro, why did you save Sanji?"

Zoro's eyes grew wide at the question. How in the hell could Luffy even found out about _that_? On second thought, it wasn't so hard to guess who's responsible considering who Luffy was closely related to. Zoro swore to get Ace paid later but now he needed to deal with his little brother first.

He figured trying to deny it was quite pointless at this stage. "That idiot was gonna get his ass killed. What else am I supposed to do?"

"I know. That's why I want to know why." Luffy's voice was surprisingly understanding.

_Why? _That's a good question. Zoro shifted slightly on his feet and tried to think of an answer. He didn't really know where to start actually since he had been trying to not give much thought to that until Luffy brought up the topic.

"I-I don't know..." He said finally after a few moments hesitating, "I didn't really think, I just... did it."

* * *

The young warlock skipped his last class to go searching around any source about the afrit named Mihawk in the school's library. He thought he could at least find a piece of useful information about the demon before his appointment with Smoker at 5. He knew how to get his way with the old lady who worked at the library to let him take a glimpse of some of the documents in the restricted area. Don't get him wrong, he didn't do anything degrading or illegal in return of a peek or two on some rare and restricted files in the library, he wasn't that kind of person who would be willing to toss his moral aside just to get what he wanted.

The old lady knew a young kid leaving near her place who wanted to learn magic. She suffered a painful back pain and often needed the kid's help for remedies. Said kid had extensive knowledge in natural herb remedies and a good heart but he couldn't attend a warlock school because he's different. He walked and talked like any other kid, but even though he was smarter than average teenagers, the fact that he wasn't human was not acceptable to the school council. The old lady told Sanji about him and he agreed to teach the kid with his knowledge about magic once a week. In return, she often let him stayed late or came earlier to the library and also gave him access to the restricted collections of text.

The blonde was sitting on the library's wooden floor and briefly scanned through some pages of a book recording warlocks and their demons when someone called him from behind the book shelve Sanji was leaning to.

"Psst! Psst, cook-bro!" Sanji turned to look at the face of a man with a strangely metal nose and light blue hair that was styled weirdly upwards. He had large muscular build and wore only an opened Hawaiian motive shirt and a speedo, which always bothered Sanji. He often wondered why Robin had never seem to be bothered by the way her demon dressed. But at least he could only see his face peeking from an empty space between books from the other side of the shelve at the moment.

"Franky! Has she found anything about the mark?" The blonde quickly put away his book and turned around to the hollow space just next to his shoulders where the demon was looking back at him from the other side.

"She's working on it. She said you're gonna need to tell Zoro-bro to stay in one form for as long as possible and use no magic. She thinks the mark creates irregular side effects that might interfere with his energy such as energy drain if he tries to use his power."

"No shape-shift and magic, got it. Anything else?"

"She asks you to keep a very close eye on him. They would try to do anything to get him from you."

"_What? _Whoa, hold on a sec, who're _they_?"

"The people who had been trying to steal Zoro-bro's name from her. She believes they also responsible for setting you up with the afrit Mihawk."

"Klahadore..." Sanji gritted his teeth angrily.

"She already had suspicions on him long before, but thinks he was just one of the minions. Some very experienced and authoritatively powerful figures were behind this."

"B-but...how does she know all of that?"

"She's the one entrusted to keep safe your green haired fella's name from the wrong hands; she's his guardian."

TBC

* * *

Whoa, this chapter had been the longest out of the other previous chaps in this fic! (and probably also the longest author note)

I think writing a long assignment the day before had me realised that writing a fanfic was truly a blessing! It had been very enjoyable to write this one :)

Yup, I made Franky Robin's demon! I think they make a cool pairing. XD

Btw, the kid with herb knowledge and the one Sanji teach is no other than Chopper. But I think everyone would have guessed that.

I hope this chapter explains some of the questions from the previous events even though only for a little bit.

Anyway, thanks for reading and please don't hesitate to leave a review. Any thoughts or opinions will be appreciated! :)


	7. Chapter 7

Hi all good readers out there!

I'm regretfully sorry for my absent for quite a long while and caused you to wait and wonder whether this fic was abandoned-it's not. Many apologies and thanks for your faith and patient, I have millions of excuses but I'm sure it'll be too boring anyway so I'm just gonna bid you happy reading! Please accept this longer chapter as an apology and hopefully it'll be entertaining too.

You could review or PM me for any questions or comments and critiques. I would love to hear your feedback!

Love,

Ho-Ho-Noa

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* * *

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**Chapter 7**

Sanji rushed along the long cobbled path towards the police station located in the city's heart. It was ten past five already. Smoker wasn't a particularly pleasant man to meet when he was in a bad mood and the only thing he hated more than waiting was to be denied his cigarettes. The blonde picked up his pace and tried not to think about the hot tempered detective. His mind wandered back to the conversation with Robin's demon in the school library.

_~Flashback~_

"_G-Guardian?_" The blonde echoed the word as if he had never heard it before, his expression showed complete incredulity. Why would a demon need a guardian?

"It's not common I know, but it's not unheard of. Some types of demon are more wanted than the others and such is the case with Zoro-bro." The blue haired demon stated.

Sanji was tempted to roll his eyes at Franky's statement but held his stare. Of course it was because those demons were more seeked than the rest of their kind. But why? And why would the green head need someone like Robin to watch over him? The thought must have showed on Sanji's face that the demon craned his neck as close as possible through the space between the empty bookshelf towards the blonde and whispered nervously after a few moments hesitation.

"You probably won't believe it, but... I heard it has something to do with the door to the underworld." He said conspiratorilly. "It's something about his power."

"...You gotta be kidding me," Sanji said incredulously. "You think it's true?"

"Hm. Too much of coincidences isn't it?" The demon cocked his head slightly and put his huge finger to his weird chin (chins).

"_Hey!_ Aren't you gonna confince me at least?" Sanji glared daggers at him.

"What can I say man? I'm just telling you what I heard," Franky made a nonchalant shrug with his face. "There's been a lot of rumors but if you really want to know, I'd wager Miss Robin might be the perfect person to start." The blonde narrowed his eyes. He didn't appreciate the demon for stating the obvious as if the warlock was dense. Or it's the demon who was stupid. It didn't really matter. It's annoying either way.

"Right" Theblonde sighed and massaged his temple tiredly. He couldn't wait to see Robin again as soon as time allowed.

_~end of flashback~_

"You're late." Smoker's deep voice rumbled from behind several high stacks of paper piled carelessly on his wooden desk.

The blonde tried to steady his breaths from running down the street the rest of the way. He inhaled deeply to start explaining. "I'm sorry and I can explain, I was-" He was cut short as the silver haired detective stood and lifted his hand.

"I'm needed on the field, so I'm gonna be very brief." He said hurriedly. "One of your Professor assistant went missing since Saturday evening. The name's Law. You probably know him."

"Trafalgar Law?" Sanji's lifted his brows curiously. "A quiet and very private guy. I've seen him around college, but I don't think many people talked to him much."

"He's been missing for four days now. According to a witness he was last seen got into a carriage on Galleon street late past midnight, at Friday. My men searched his rented room and the school but found nothing significant yet." The detective reached for a folder on top of a paper pile from his desk and thrust it towards Sanji.

"Let me know when you find anything. I'll be rather busy this week so feel free to contact Tashigi or Nico Robin should you need any assistance." Smoker put his doble weapons that looked like a strangely modified police clubs (Sanji was sure the weapons would be confiscated once he showed up with those if Smoker was an ordinary officer) into the weapon straps on his back and adjusted his thick belt then walked towards the door.

"Good luck, kid." He waved a shooing gesture at the young warlock without sparing another glance then banged the door close before the frowning blonde. He didn't like it when called by the nickname and the man knew it. A payback for his coming late it seemed.

_That grumpy bastard. Reminds me of someone... only he is more irritating by tenfold. _Thought Sanji.

Sanji was oogling (or was trying to) at the petite form of Officer Tashigi who hurriedly following after the large frame of the detective from the wide glass window of the office. He could hear the man grunted an order to her and they were gone through the exit door within seconds.

_Damn it all, why should I be busy cursing that marimo while in front of me cute Miss Tashigi showing off her fine curve with those tight pants...?_

Something was off. Sanji noticed that he didn't react the way he normally would in the presence of the pretty police officer (eventhough it was only through the window). It might have a lot to do with him feeling not very well today due to accumulated pressures. Not to mention that stubborn green haired bastard lying sick in his room. And the gang of criminals who were trying to stole his name for unknown reason. And also the other things Franky told him. That's a lot to take in within a short period of time. The blonde felt a little nauseaus and decided to go home to get some proper rest.

Sanji heard noises coming from his room when he was walking through the corridor and picked up his pace towards the door. It sounded like there was a fight of some sort taking place inside. When he barged in, he found that almost the entire floor was covered with white goose feathers. A torn fabric that used to be Sanji's favorite pillow was thrown carelessly on the floor while the other pillow was being used as weapon to smack Usopp by the fuming Zoro while chasing the curly haired demon who ran in circles. Luffy was looking very enthusiastic while chasing the two with his cheeks bloated.

"Hwhhaaaiii~! Hhshangi's hbhackh! (Sanji's back!)" Luffy beamed, his voice muffled due to his cheeks stretched wide from storing something huge inside his mouth. Apparently someone had shoved the entire thick wooly fabric into his mouth in an attempt to shut him up or it could be that he decided the old blanket was edible enough to be in his diet list. Every possibilities were probable with Luffy involved, especially the odd ones. The monkey demon abandoned his current activity to approach the entering blonde.

"Hhangji! Ghhuezhh whathz hhorrho dhzreamed-zgahhhh! (Sanji! Guess what Zoro dreamed-gahh!)" Luffy was interjected roughly by a hard smack on the back of his head, spilling a ball of semi-wet blanket from his mouth and feathers flew out from the pillow that hit him, spewing all the remaining feathers it had left in it.

"Zoro that _HURTS_!" The boy whined loudly.

"_**SHUT UP!**_" The green head roared. He looked like he was ready to pounce at Luffy at any moment. Not a few steps away, Usopp was lying face first on the floor (almost all flat on the floor too), thoroughly beaten up. Although it seemed like it was more than he deserved, it's highly probable that the reason was his own doing.

"I'm blind~~ Can't feel a thing~" Usopp moaned weakly.

Sanji rolled his eyes "Idiots... what's this all about?"

"That's gonna happen for real if you _don't_ stop talking _at once_!" The green haired demon growled at Usopp, neither of them seemed to notice the blonde's question.

"But I must report to Master! It is my duty!" The curly head persisted with the last bit of honor and dignity he could muster (which was very little since his voice was a high pitched squeak and his knees trembled all over)

"Would any of you-" The blonde opened his mouth again but was cut short.

"Then I'm gonna _get rid_ of _you_!" Said Zoro. He made a move to catch Usopp who was on his feet in an instant.

"_EEEK!_ Master, _**HEEEEELP**__!_" The poor goblin screeched while fleeing like a hare.

"Stop it idiots, or I'll-!" Sanji thrust himself between the two to separate them but unfortunately as a result; he got a foot stomped on his toes, an elbow jabbed to his side (this was Usopp panicking, thinking that Zoro had caught him) and a rough push from behind (Zoro who was determined to kill Usopp).

"Get over _here_, you louse!" Zoro shoved past the warlock, barking mad while chasing after the other demon. Meanwhile Luffy, who appeared to be fully recovered from his previous injury, decided to humor himself by watching the ruckus and laughing his lungs out. Apparently, he found the whole mess to be quite entertaining.

It pulled on the last straw and Sanji finally exploded. "_**ENOUGH**__!_ _PUNISHMENT _FOR_ ALL _OF YOU!" He yelled loudly. At this point, Sanji managed to gain everybody's attention who momentarily paused from their current activities.

Sanji puffed up a little from gaining their full attention and put his hands on the hip to add an effect then continued "You better start explaining!" He demanded sternly without seeing the mistake of his choice of words. The three started yelling and pointing at each other all at once, trying to put the blame on somebody else besides themselves and Sanji had to shout louder than he did before (and made his throat sore) in order to get them quieted down again.

"Luffy, you go first!" The blonde told the monkey demon who immediately leapt in joy for being given the first turn before putting on a serious look.

"It was all Zoro's fault; he said the blanket was actually a wide layer of jelly. I didn't believe it, I said it didn't look very tasty and it looked more like a huge layer of blue seaweed anyway so we argued some more until he shoved it into my mouth!" Luffy paused to inhale and also to get some reaction out of everyone (especially Sanji) but he just looked at him, waiting, and Usopp even groaned weakly so Luffy decided to explain himself further.

"It's all weird, right? Everyone knows blankets aren't edible!" He stopped for a moment then, sweeping his gaze over everyone's faces and waited for an expected reaction but they all looked puzzled and annoyed still (especially Sanji), if not more. Usopp sighed and groaned desperately for the second time. Luffy scratched his head and tried to think harder. He got a feeling that his explanation didn't meet with everyone's expectation and he'd missed out an important part.

What could it be? Ah yes! A light bulb appeared above his head and his face lit up. "Ah I get it! He did it coz he didn't want me to speak up!" The boy smacked his fist onto his palm loudly while Usopp sighed a long relieved breath in the background.

"Of what?" demanded Sanji impatiently.

The monkey boy continued, "We were playing another round of this cool game Usopp taught me when we heard noises and Usopp found out that it was Zoro crying in his sleep-"

"For the_**last**_timeItoldyouit_**wasn't**_**-**" Zoro interjected heatedly.

Sanji's expression turned from seriously annoyed to something different entirely in a blink of an eye. _"C-c-c-crying~~? Roronoa Zoro crying in his sleep like a little girl?"_ He would have wanted to say that aloud but he was too busy trying to keep his laughing fit to a mere decent snickers in front of the visibly fuming green head. There could be a massacre ensued had he reacted to his heart's content.

"**SHUT THE **_**FUCK**_** UP!**" Zoro barked, fuming mad with rage. "It _**WAS NOT**_ like _**that**_!"

"Yes it was!" said Luffy.

Big mistake.

"_Gyaaaaahhhh_! He's gonna _kill_ both of us, _**run**_ Luffy!" Usopp screamed in horror and was gone from the room within seconds, leaving behind a trail of clouds in his track. Luffy, of course, followed suit.

It was sometime past midnight when finally Zoro decided to cease hunting for the two demons and came back empty handed. His anger had subsided somewhat but he was still in a bad mood when he found out Sanji was still up. He was sitting quietly in the dark on one corner of the table, waiting. Zoro didn't like the look of it and hesitated for a moment but then decided to walk in anyway.

"Wanna tell me about it?" The young warlock started conversationally. There's no trace of mockery or force in his voice but it only made the greenhead grew more uneasy.

"No." He said gruffly and headed towards the farthest corner from the bed to huddle or sleep.

"I wouldn't change shape if I were you, it could be more painful this time." Said Sanji, knowing Zoro's habit of transforming into bat shape so he could sleep upside down on the ceiling and be left alone.

"What do you mean?"

"It might have something to do with the use of spirit energy; your pain attack." Sanji went on. It made the demon paused in his track and silence filled the room for a moment for none of them spoke.

"I spoke to Franky this afternoon. He said there are people after you. Do you know this?"

"No and I don't give a damn. Your kind has always been hunting ours for centuries. I'm surprise you hadn't noticed."

Sanji sighed tiredly and decided to drop it at that. It is of no use to try to get some answers from Zoro when he was moody. Besides, he was too tired to argue and his eyelids felt heavy so Sanji fetched his blanket (it was almost dry by now), not caring where it had been-or tried not to, and curled himself on the rug between piles of books and the table. He was fast asleep soon after.

Zoro stood watching the huddled form for some time and exhaled a deep heavy breath. He felt bad for being harsh to the blonde. He knew he was trying to help. Everybody was just trying to help. And it's not that he didn't need them or didn't want them to, not really. It's just that he couldn't understand what was happening to him and so many unanswered who's and why's questions haunting his mind. But the thing bothering him most was the recent dream he had. It was vague yet felt real at the same time. Foreign yet somehow so familiar like the back of his hand. Dark yet beautiful. And it scared him because he knew it was a fragment of his past, however strange it might be.

The green head sat leaning against the bed frame on the floor for a long moment. The idea of sleep didn't look very appealing to him at the moment. But in the end he couldn't resist the drowsiness that kept making his head fell to his chest. Very soon the darkness overtook him.

He was in the middle of a huge dome-shaped hall. It was dark but somehow he could see the top of the partly ruined dome and the dark clouds that were moving slowly on the pitch dark sky far above. The air was so cold and he was shivering to the bones but he could only lie there and stare straight up to the shifting clouds and the darkness beyond.

He was dying.

A shadowed form rushed to his side. Zoro couldn't see the face clearly but the person felt very familiar somehow. The figure's presence was comfort and love and passion blended as one. This was someone he knew once.

The figure suddenly fell to its knees as if pulled down by an enormous gravity and stilled. Its face hanged low on the shoulder and it gazed down at him for a long moment.

Silence, shadows and emptiness filled the stone hall. The distant sound of howling wind that blew into the empty dark hall through the cracks and the thin long windows around the dome above was the only source of sound yet the green head could tell the shadowed form before him was crying. He could not see the crying face nor could he hear a sobbing sound but he felt the pain and despair radiating from it. So great was the pain that the demon shed tears of his own, as if it was he who had lost his beloved.

Or maybe it was he who was on his knees and wept, mourning for a lost love and lost hope. He couldn't tell then for he saw a pale frozen figure lied motionless on the stone floor while his eyes fixed down on the lifeless face. He tried to focus on the face's details; the eyes, the nose and the lips but none of it brought back anything he could recall. They felt familiar but he couldn't remember who they belonged to. He stared and he stared but it would only seemed to make the figure grew out of focus. Everything was slowly fading to black as if shadows steadily consumed the last bit of light until all that was left was grief.

It was like an invisible blunt sword was pushed slowly into his chest. It went deeper as its blunt edges ripped open his skin, flesh, muscle, and bone but he couldn't move or scream. There was sharp burning pain in his empty lungs and he tried opening his mouth and sucked in but no air came in.

He couldn't breathe.

He kept opening his mouth wide to inhale but it was in vain. There was no air. He couldn't breathe. The pain was overwhelming and his body began to spasm as a result. The shaking grew greater until his head lolled forward and backward from the movements and he felt hard pressures on both of his upper arms. It really felt like someone had shook him real hard and he began to see some pale light filtering into the room. It was relatively dark, but he knew he was no longer in the dome. The square room and the low ceiling was very familiar and rather comforting. Another rough shake reminded him of breathing and with a long deep inhale warm air instantly filled his pained lungs. Then he quickly rose up and blinked vigorously awake. His eyes were hot and his cheeks wet but thank goodness it was dark that Sanji couldn't clearly see him.

The silhouette of the blonde loomed over him. His hands clutched hard at Zoro's arms and his chest heaved rapidly. "Good gracious," He exhaled deeply. "You okay?" The green head grunted an awkward confirmation. It was embarassing enough to be awoken in that state (moreover by Sanji-Zoro thought in annoyance) and he was thankful that the warlock chose to stay silent as he shifted to lean his back on the side of the bed. Sanji did the same and for a good few awkward moments none of them spoke.

For a few times, the blonde glanced half-heartedly towards the demon at his side but he didn't know where to start. There's so much questions to ask but no proper sentence seemed to appear in his head. The thought of Zoro crying in sleep seemed so much different now that he saw him with his own eyes. The deep quiet sobbings were heartbreaking; as if he was tortured so wickedly or-no! It's more likely of a despairing soul mourning for a stolen life he treasured most. Could he once long ago has a beloved? Sanji's stomach strangely wrung and knotted from the mere thought of it.

TBC


	8. Chapter 8

Hi again to you all! This is me with a new update with a little MixZo put in (as requested by LuvLuvKakashi- here's a little treat for u and other MixZo fangirls out there :D) and this is currently the longest chapter I've written! Yay!

Special thanks for everyone reading n reviewing last chapter; you're all awesome and I'm so happy people are still interested in it!

Last but not least, please enjoy and don't be shy to PM or review me and tell me what u think about it! ;)

Love,

Ho-Ho-Noa (currently suffering a stiff back as a result of spending too much hours sitting in front of her laptop)

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**Chapter 8**

It was near midday when Sanji was awoken to the sound of knocking at his door. It was vague and gentle at first that he thought he was dreaming it but then it got louder and more urgent he almost leapt up from the bed to rush towards the door. The person on the other side pushed in immediately after they heard the door was unlocked, rudely bumped and almost literally squeezed the blonde between the door and the wall. If it were a male, his legs would have a good after-sleep exercise for kicking the mannerless intruder through the walls. And he might lose his cozy room and his scholarship soon after that, which was not good.

"Oh my God! Sanji, are you okay?" Nami exclaimed apologetically upon seeing her friend's state.

"Ah, I would withstand anything for my sweet Nami-swan worrying about me!" He cooed happily, quickly recovering his minor injuries. "To what do I owe this honour, milady?"

A nervous curly head suddenly popped in and briefly scanned the room for a certain flash of green but having found none, he sighed a relieved breath and went inside muttering about not having enough sleep all the while.

"Hi Sanji," Luffy greeted the blonde with a wide yawn as he shuffled in, following after Usopp who jumped onto Sanji's crumpled bed with a satisfied sigh and a huge smile on his face.

"Usopp refused to come home until he's totally confinced it's safe and besides I want to see how you're going," The orange haired girl said but then quickly corrected herself to make her point clear, knowing Sanji's love-mode reaction (which was quite irritating to her, especially when the circumstances weren't very appropriate) "I meant you and Zoro," she pointed out.

Something in her voice suggested as if they were _together_, or maybe he was only imagining it but the odd thought made the blonde felt a sudden faint blush creeping up his cheeks. He got a sudden need to drop his gaze downwards to stare at his toes.

"Uh, there's nothing serious happened this past few days," He said tentatively "...unless they've told you already." She raised her eyebrow questioningly to show him neither Luffy nor Usopp did (quite surprising indeed). The blonde couldn't think why they didn't for he thought the two had been forced to stay (and hide) overnight at Nami's place and she would have demanded an explanation. But then, on second thought, Nami's place would be too obvious a hiding place so maybe they hid somewhere safer most of the night. Sanji took a low deep breath and continued reluctantly. Something told him that he wouldn't be able to describe the exact state Zoro was in or the sympathy Sanji then felt from watching last night's event without embarassing any of them, but he chose to remain calm and continued anyway.

"He had bad dreams," He said slowly "I think it's connected to the sc-err wound he got last time." He cleared his throat nervously for the near slip, remembering his lies to Nami for Robin had forbid him to tell no one about the accident with Mihawk (despite his principles towards women). He had merely made her believed that Zoro was injured after fighting a strayed demon he encountered in the slum area, on the outer edge of the city while running an errand for Sanji.

"I didn't know they could have those. Is it normal?" The blonde asked rather too inquisitively, desperate to change the topic into something more general.

The orange head frowned a little at that but otherwise shown no sign of protest.

"I've never heard of it," She tilted her head slightly and put her index finger to her chin, trying to think through the idea Sanji brought up. She frowned again and shook her head slightly. "No, I don't think they have nightmares like we do." She said finally.

"Dream works like a door to them. It gives them access to their own dimension; the world where their life force and energy come from and while dreaming they are restored into full strength. It could also take them to memories in their past."

"Nami-swan is so smart!" Sanji beamed despite the fact that those was commonly known facts among their peers of the same year or older. It was a must to master the basic handbook of demons (which contained general knowledge about demons) before having one, as their summoning class teacher, Mr. Igaram , had said so many times. In fact, the possibility that it was indeed Zoro's past was what concerned Sanji since last night.

"How did Zoro react when he got those?" Nami asked, referring to Zoro's bad dreams.

"Well, he looked... pretty upset," Said Sanji, not wanting to descibe last night's scene too bluntly. Somehow he feared the possibility of Nami laughing at it, although he knew she was a good and supporting friend but it was no lie that she could be very frank sometimes. He couldn't blame her either for he didn't take the incident seriously until he witness it himself last time. Nami waited a moment to let the blonde continued but when he didn't, she huffed and her mouth formed a little pout that usually worked it's magic on Sanji. It was obvious he's not telling everything and she felt hurt. Wasn't she good enough a friend he could trust?

Sanji started to pour his expressions of apology all over the orange head without showing any intention to tell but she would have none of those, not until he told the truth. Zoro was a friend too eventhough they argued a lot and her concern for him was genuine.

"When will Zoro be home, Sanji?" Luffy suddenly asked, gazing around the room with alert eyes hoping for the presence of said demon. Apparently he had thought their conversation was more interesting than sleeping and had been half listening all along but then he started to get bored. The blonde swept his gaze around the room as if he didn't realise Zoro's absent already while thinking for a reply. Zoro got a tendency to disappear early in the morning and return at much later hour when Sanji didn't have lots of jobs for him and only appeared when called. He was also rarely seen hanging around like other demons (Sanji didn't notice it before since it was his first experience with a demon-well, second after Usopp) so he didn't know Zoro as much as he'd liked-not that he wanted it, it's just that he thought it's important for a warlock to know their demon better-or so he thought.

"He won't be back until much later," Said the blonde, hoping that the certain thick head of a demon would remember his own condition and stayed out of trouble wherever he was. He was rather panicked when he first realised Zoro had gone out without his consent, but then he calmed himself thinking although stubborn as he was, the greenhead wouldn't be that reckless to wander out of the school's area on his own. Each building of the school was not only equiped with clever mechanism from burglars but also heavily warded by magical runes to prevent random demons sneaking into it. Only demons listed by insiders could come in and go out; so as long as the greenhead was within one of those buildings, he was safe. Luffy whined miserably for he was getting real bored and it didn't seem like something interesting was about to happen nor they were going to go anywhere soon.

"I'm boooored! Can we go now, Nami?" Luffy begged childishly.

"Not until Sanji tell me what's really going on." Nami said stubbornly and refused to move an inch from her spot. "Or do you know this all along, Luffy?" She gave the monkey boy a hard glare.

"Err...'this'?" He looked confused, couldn't understand what Nami was making a big fuss over. "You mean about Zoro crying?"

"What's that got anything to do with-wait, _what?_" Nami demanded, throwing questioning gaze at the blonde and then back at Luffy.

"He got angry because we told Sanji. That's why we're hiding from him last night." Luffy finished his story and Nami's wide demanding eyes turned to Sanji; asking for further explanation from him. The blonde sighed in defeat and settled to let the girl knew, after all it was hard to keep a secret from her if sooner or later he was going to need more of her help. He could count on Nami when things got worse.

"It was the dreams. It happened again after Luffy and Usopp were gone. I don't know why he suddenly got all these problems after-" He stopped himself briefly, hesitating on telling her the whole part but he continued on and told her everything except about Robin being Zoro's guardian. The orange head watched intently and only nodded once in a while, and Luffy and Usopp (who was woken up none too gently by Luffy) sat up and listened quietly as Sanji talked. It was more serious than they had thought it was (except Usopp, for he knew most of the important parts already) and silence filled the room for quite a long while until a knock and a voice at the door was heard.

"Yo, are you home?" It was Franky.

"Yeah, wait a sec" Said Sanji as he rushed to open the door. It's about time Robin got more news for him.

"The lady's got something to discuss with you, she's at the usual place until tonight-well, heeey! Seems like everyone's got a secret gathering here without telling me!"

"Hi, Franky!"Luffy and Usopp waved and greeted him.

"Oh, miss Nami's here too. Nice to see you all." Smiled Franky as Nami waved at him "Too bad I got other errand to run otherwise I'd like to hang for a bit. See you all later."

"Bye, Franky!" the others said in unison.

He made a 'poof' noise as he turned into a floating bluish steam and disappeared. Soon, the other remaining quests prepared to leave as the sun had began tipping halfway to the west. That was when Sanji realised he hadn't eaten anything yet. His stomach was rumbling rather loudly and Nami invited him to go eat at Brook's noodle hut accross the police station; the humble yet dubbed best noodle restaurant in the city by students for it was tasty and suitable for student's limited budget especially near the end of the month. Sanji refreshed himself with a quick shower before catching up Nami, Luffy, and Usopp who had gone there first and waited for him there. He slipped in a blue hooded sweater and comfortable pants before making haste to their meeting place.

It was rather chilly this time of the year eventhough the sun was shinning above the roofs. There wasn't many people on the street as cold weather seemed to keep them inside where it's warmer and less windy. After another few turns , he could see the narrow one story building that looked like it's leaning onto the wall of the taller and newer townhall on its right side. It might be old and definitely less glamourous, but it felt familiar and welcoming to students like him, moreover most of them knew the cheerful owner, Mr. Brook, well. He enjoyed his job as the cook and often the waiter, he also loved chatting and singing with the costumers that always seemed to crowd the small restaurant.

The blonde could see a flash of orange head and two blacks near the window and picked up his pace. He walked pass several dark robed men when he crossed the courtyard with a smal stone fountain in the middle and glanced back absentmindedly. They were foreign warlocks by the look of it. There seemed to be more and more of them coming in and out of the city the last few months. Sanji didn't pay much heed for them and his mind was soon clouded with thoughts of a big bowl of steaming hot noodle as he walked in to Brook's restaurant.

...

"Please come in," Robin's voice called from behind the dark mahogany door Sanji had knocked on. There was odd engravings at the top of it; three dragons whose tails touching a single orb and the young warlock wondered whether it had any meaning. He pulled the handle and pushed open the door just enough for him to slip in and closed it again behind him. The room was dim just like the last time he was there and the only source of light was the iron fireplace and a lantern on the table near the wall but somehow the air felt different; it felt like they were not in the spare room on the furthest corner of library building at all, but rather they were in a room located on the highest tower somewhere. It was almost completely silent and seemed far away from anything but he could hear the wind blew the outer walls all around them and created a faint whistling sound through a tiny crack somewhere on the window or the ceiling.

He liked to think Robin as a mysterious and intriquing lady, but there were times when he detected something different about her; something-he dared say-odd and inhuman. There, sitting on one of the leather armchairs facing the fire, sat Robin whose skin seemed to reflect the light of the fire in odd color of purplish gleam. She glanced at the blonde and elegantly gestured him to sit on the chair next to her.

She started with a smile "How are you, Sanji? You haven't contacted me since last time so I take it everything's fine so far?" Her drop of civility by calling only by his name created certain closeness that made him relaxed a bit took his time to shift and get a more comfortable position in his chair.

"...Yes," He said hesitantly and Robin lifted one finely shaped eyebrow at that. "He had dreams, yesterday and last night, and it seemed to bother him greatly."

Sanji shifted his gaze towards the bright yellow fire before them, for a moment listening to the sound of faint crackling as it slowly eating up the chopped woods, while he organised thoughts in his mind. There were so many things he wanted to know from her and this topic brought up the question he had been meaning to ask for a long time. The raven haired woman didn't break the silence and waited for him to continue for she knew what he was going to ask next.

The blonde cleared his throat and continued "I was wondering whether you would know some of his stories, in the past. It might be helpful if I-" He paused.

"Get to know him more?" She finished for him and smiled warmly "Of course, I will provide you with anything within my knowledge. We have plenty of time, but there are some urgent matters that I need to tell you first."

...

Zoro yawned and stretched like a cat as he woke up from his long slumber. He dreamed only of twirling vague shapes and bright shades, recovering his ached muscles and joints almost fully. He rose up from his makeshift bed of rags he found and stretched some more before deciding to come back. Pale crescent moon could be seen hanging high on the gloomy dark sky from the broken window and he brieftly wondered how long he had slept soundly in there. His mood was pretty much lifted up and he felt quite ready to come back to his current wretched life and the poor excuse of a space his master called home. He was in the eastern wing building of the warlock academy where there was a high tower that used to be classrooms. Several of its lower level was still in use but the middle part was mainly for storage rooms of unused items from classes. The highest room was left empty save for several broken furnitures and its wide windows were planked or rotten from weather. It had open high ceiling, which more or less was still in passable condition against weather, and the room was quite huge as it covered the whole level unlike the other rooms. Despite the fact that it was used for teaching students summoning their very first demons a few decades back (Zoro liked to think it as the birthplace room for slavers), it was the green head's favourite place. It was safely away from any school activities-or most importantly; people-and it's totally quiet after the sun set behind the high roofs and trees. The humid stale air felt welcoming but the best thing of all was the view to most of the buildings of the city.

He peered down from a window to examine his way down to the lower levels through several series of roof conjunction and some stepable hollow or jutted out stones on the outer wall (which he found not so long ago). The outer stairs to and from 'slavers' room' was heavily broken so he could only access outer stairs from the fourth floor. He would use magic to transport himself easily from there to Sanji's on daily basis so he wasn't really used to this alternate way. He found the first stepping stone near the bottom of the window and tested its stability with one of his leg. His leg stepped firmly, so he crept slowly out of the window with both hands still holding the window pane and reached for the second step with his free leg. He descended a few two or three stories before he reached the first roof connected to the outer wall of the tower. He stopped for a few moments to catch breaths and was about to continue his journey down when he caught a glimpse of shadow moved on the corner between nearby roofs.

"Who are you?" He demanded. He had got a vague feeling of being watched since he climbed down from the window but didn't pay much thought to it.

The figure remained in the shadows but he let out a low rumbling chuckle and responded menacingly "Are you scared, little demon?"

"Y-You!" The greenhead froze immediately and his eyes went wide in disbelief. There's no way in hell he was given such badluck lately! The voice could only belonged to one demon and he was caught unprepared with practically nothing to defend himself with. The afrit had concealed his aura so that he could sneak close undetected.

"Show yourself, coward!" He knew he was tempting fate but he was shaking in rage from head to toe. This demon was the cause of all his troubles and all he wanted was revenge!

The tall shape moved forwards into the light and revealed Mihawk in his full human form. He wore a dark red long robe-like shirt and a wide-brimmed hat. His sharp golden eyes gleamed against the pale light of the moon, like a pair of eagle's eyes watching intently for a perfect time to strike its prey. A huge sword was strapped on his back and it peaked Zoro's curiosity; he's a sword wielding demon-just like him.

"Come to finish me off didn't you?" Zoro withdrew his swords and risked another taunt. He might as well die while sending the first blow than killed while fleeing his enemy. "Why bother stopping now?"

"I would've easily done that hours before, but what's the fun of it?" He said "I could feel your weakened power, or did you forget it?" Zoro could only gritted his teeth and glared back at him, mentally kicking himself for being reckless.

_...hours?_ It was disturbing to know that the afrit had been there for that long a time without him noticing even the slightest.

"What are you going to do now, little demon?" The hawk-eyed man's lips curved slightly into a smile; enjoying the displayed reaction on the other demon's face upon his words. Mihawk took a step closer and Zoro drew back cautiously, focusing only to read an incoming attack and be in defense position. If luck was with him, he might succeed on sending a few counterattacks before he was killed. Mihawk kept approaching and Zoro tried to maintain a safe distant until he realised the afrit was trying to corner him. If he withdrew any farther, the space would be too limited to dodge, moreover to attack.

The tight situation left him with only one option: he had to attack first. Mihawk seemed to know this and his dark smile widened. Coming closer, he drew out a tiny knife that was his cross shaped necklace instead of the sword hanged on his back and he held it high enough for Zoro to see. It was an obvious attempt of baiting but he knew the genie was taking it when he saw deadly gleam in his eyes eventhough his mouth breathed out a short chuckle. A second later loud clangs of metals rang clear in the air as their swords clashed. The greenhead aggressively sent a sequence of slashing attacks that nearly cut the edge of Mihawk's shirt but he managed to dodge those without much effort. He hadn't even used his knife to attack and Zoro had already felt the beginning of exertion. Their difference in strength was too great!

By a few more failed attack attempts, Zoro was exhausted and hardly able to swing his swords properly. The scar on his chest began to make itself known and the dull throbbing pain prevented him from breathing normally.

He yelled out his frustration while sending a poorly calculated attack that was easily dodged by his opponent. "**Come on! Attack **_**me**_**, goddamnit!**" The afrit obliged, advancing with a single swiping move of his knife that sent Zoro's swords flying while his other hand trust forward; grabbed the front of his shirt then banged him mercilessly onto the rough stone wall.

The green head was unpleasantly reminded of his first experience encountering Mihawk with his current position pinned awkwardly onto the wall. He remembered feeling sick and nauseaus; thinking his death was imminent, and currently the situation was no different, except for the fact that he was going to die for sure. It was ironic that thoughts of the blonde's approaching form was the one thing that kept playing and playing again in his head.

TBC

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And soooo I had to cut it right there since it has gotten too painfully long... ^_^''

Many apologies girls, but I'll give you all a hint for the upcoming update as a bonus: a little steamy hotness of MixZo! XD


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